Date: 1905-06-25
Source: Lenin Collected Works, vol. 26
Pages: 289-289

LENIN COLLECTED WORKS
EXCERPT FROM "VOSSISCHE ZEITUNG" ON THE ANTICIPATED RESULTS 
OF THE ZEMSTVO AND NOBILITY CONGRESS.

The Berlin liberal-bourgeois newspaper "Vossische Zeitung"* published 
on 25 (12) June the following dispatch from Petersburg, from a "chance 
correspondent":

"Russia stands on the eve of momentous events. The reactionary measures 
of the government, undertaken immediately after the Tsar's address to the 
zemstvo delegation, have provoked extreme indignation. Everything is moving 
toward a decisive denouement (Alles drängt zur Entscheidung). On 25 June 
a new zemstvo congress convenes in Moscow. On 30 June a conference of urban 
delegates. On 3 July an all-Russian nobility congress. If the Tsar does not 
by then resolve to grant a constitution (sich nicht zu einer K[onstituti]on 
entschlossen) and does not make binding declarations (bindende Zusicherungen 
gegeben), then it is planned (von gewisser Seite beabsichtigt wird) to pro­
claim a provisional government in Moscow². This is what they say (versichert) 
here in serious, non-revolutionary circles. According to rumors, all political 
groups concerned with this (in Betracht kommenden) have already agreed on 
this matter. 'Better an end with terror than terror without end' 
(Ende mit Schrecken³...), such is the present slogan. [Moreover,] they are 
counting on the army."

The contents of this dispatch were transmitted in Le Matin on 26 (13) June

¹ The note was published in No. 293 of "Vossische Zeitung" (morning edition) of 25 June 1905 under the heading "Die revolutionäre Bewegung in Russland" ("The Revolutionary Movement in Russia"). The contents were transmitted in No. 7792 of "Le Matin" of 26 June 1905, in a note under the heading "Menaces populaires" ("Popular Threats").

² The excerpt from "Vossische Zeitung" was made on the same sheet on which the document "Armed Insurrection" was written (see Lenin Collected Works, vol. V, 322). In section 1 of the document it is stated: "The boastfulness of 'Vossische Zeitung'". Lenin probably had in mind the liberals' boastful promise to "proclaim a provisional government in Moscow," which is discussed in the note.

³ The words cited in the note: "Lieber ein Ende mit Schrecken als ein Schrecken ohne Ende" ("Better a terrible end than endless terror") are taken from Marx's "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte." See K. Marx and F. Engels. Works, vol. VIII, 395, or K. Marx. Selected Works in Two Volumes, vol. II, 312.
